THE FIRST GLOBAL MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON ROAD SAFETY URGES UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO DECLARE THE DECADE 2011– 2020 AS THE “DECADE OF ACTION FOR ROAD SAFETY”.

The First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety held under the auspices of the United Nations has called for the declaration of the decade 2011-2020 as “the decade of action for road safety”.

This was part of the resolutions reached at the end of the Conference held in Moscow, Russia on 19 – 20 November, 2009.

The resolutions jointly adopted by the Ministers and heads of delegation as well as representatives of international, regional and sub-regional and nongovernmental organizations and private bodies who gathered, agreed among others to “encourage the implementation of the recommendation of the World Health Organization report on road traffic injury prevention”. It also resolved to “reinforce governmental leadership and guidance in road safety, including the designing and strengthening of lead agencies and related coordination mechanism at national or sub-national level”.

The Conference further resolved to “set ambitious yet feasible national road traffic casualty reduction targets that are clearly linked to planned investments and policy initiatives and mobilize the necessary resources to enable effective and sustainable implementation to achieve targets in the framework of a safe system approach”.

In addition, it resolved to “encourage organizations to contribute actively to improving work related road safety through adopting the use of best practices in fleet management”.

Part of the resolutions was also to “Promote harmonization of road safety and vehicle safety regulations and good practices through implementation of relevant United Nations resolutions and investments”. The conference also resolved to “encourage collaborative action by fostering cooperation between relevant entities of public administrations, organizations of the United Nations system, private and public sectors, and with civil societies”.

The two day conference had in attendance, the President of Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, Anarfi Asmoa-Baah of the World Bank, representative of UNICEF and Lord George Robertson, Chairman, Commission for Global Road Safety. Also in attendance were Ministers and heads of delegations from all continents of the world, including road safety stakeholders and international donor agencies.

The Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Osita Chidoka who was one of the speakers at the plenary sessions, presented a paper entitled “Good Practices in Road Safety: the Nigerian Perspective”, where he called for the adoption of the concept of volunteerism as practiced in Nigeria through Special Marshals model, which he proffered as “an option for entrenching road safety culture, especially in economically challenged economies”.